TV series
An in-depth look at news stories. Documentaries that take you behind the scenes giving an insight into people's lives or institutions.
Availability
Checked Jul 22, 2026
Dispatches premiered October 30, 1987. We don't have a confirmed streaming, rental or purchase option yet.
An in-depth look at news stories. Documentaries that take you behind the scenes giving an insight into people's lives or institutions.
Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.
Episode 1
Dispatches goes undercover posing as representatives of a Chinese company to investigate how politicians, including former cabinet ministers, are looking to make money by advising businesses about Brexit.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 2
A reporter goes undercover as an agency housekeeper working at a Premier Inn hotel in central London and discovers some uncomfortable truths about what it is like for some of the people working there.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 3
In an Al Jazeera investigation, Reporter Deboarah Davies reveals how former youth football coach Barry Bennell spent his days coaching children and nights abusing them.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 4
Faced with a shortage of places to treat mental health patients, the NHS is placing patients in private hospitals. Dispatches goes undercover inside one of the American-owned Priory Group's hospitals to investigate.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 5
At a time when students are graduating up to 58,000 pounds in debt and university staff are protesting about cuts to their pensions, Dispatches investigates the expenses of Britain's top universities.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 6
The Week Britain Froze examines the causes of the Beast from the East, tells extraordinary stories of human courage, and asks if this freezing weather is a sign of things to come.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 7
Dispatches goes undercover to discover if the UK's Financial Ombudsman acts in favour of banks and against their customers.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 8
With the deadline for companies to disclose their gender pay gap approaching, reporter Tazeen Ahmad reveals how the figures presented may not be all that they seem.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 9
Across Britain the police, government agencies and other public bodies have been reaching out to Muslim groups in the fight against extremism - but how much do they know about some of these groups?
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 10
Matt Frei examines former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal's past - and the murky world of espionage, politics and crime - to find potential motives for his poisoning in Salisbury.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 11
An undercover investigation into how British hauliers are using hi-tech cheat devices and computer hacking to disable the emissions controls on their lorries saving them money but worsening air quality.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 12
An investigation of the government-subsidised renewable energy industry turning trees into fuel, asking whether burning wood is really a more environmentally friendly alternative to burning coal.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 13
Morland Sanders asks if the changes made to the Universal Credit system have forced some people to become homeless and to turn to food banks for support and if the nationwide roll-out of the changes should be halted.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 14
For the past five years an undercover network of Rohingya activists have been risking their lives to secretly film evidence of years of repression, violence and mass murder by the authorities in Myanmar.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 15
A year on from the Grenfell Tower disaster Ed Howker investigates claims that even after the Hackitt Review of building regulations Britain's tower blocks are still not safe.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 16
Britain faces a major housing shortage so how is it that some of those who are responsible for providing the social housing that is so desperately needed seem to be doing so well out of the crisis?
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 17
Dispatches goes undercover in the secretive world of the people who decide what can and can't be posted on Facebook, exploring how their decisions are made and the impact they have on users.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 18
With exclusive access to the secretive world of Britain's new neo-Nazis, Dispatches tells the inside story of a far-right terrorist plot to murder an MP, and how the plan was betrayed to the police.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 19
Datshiane Navanayagam goes behind the scenes at two homeless shelters in London to reveal the growing number of people who are in work but are unable to afford high private rents in a low wage economy.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 20
Journalist and television presenter Kate Quilton investigates why Britain has some of the worst breastfeeding rates in the world and also explores some of the scientific evidence for the benefits of breast milk.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 21
Liam Halligan reveals the story behind the collapse of Carillion, the vast British company built on billions of pounds of public money and that imploded in January 2018.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 22
An increasing number of victims of crime are claiming that the police are not fully investigating their cases, while police cite a lack of resources. Are we entering a new era of policing?
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 23
Livvy Haydock explores the dark world of online witness intimidation, meeting those who threaten 'snitches' and the families of witnesses who paid the price for telling the truth in court.
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 24
Over 2 million people smoke cannabis in the UK. Some police forces no longer prosecute for possession. Canada and several American States have legalised it. So should the UK follow suit?
Where to watch DispatchesEpisode 25
Examines the growing need for baby banks in the UK and meets the working parents who are turning to them to provide their young children with nappies, clothes, toys and cots.
Where to watch Dispatches
Episode 26
North Korean citizens reveal what life is like for the 24 million people who live in the world's most secretive country, where the state controls every aspect of their life.
Directed by James JonesGuest stars David Harewood
Episode information updated Jul 25, 2026
Available now in United States
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